Combustion of waste fuels.



appertains to make and use the same.

.a' train @i ll firi ldig AXE C. L. EK$TBJ6MQ 0F sanrsrorr SPA, NEW YORK.

COMBUSTION 0F WASTE FUELS.

No Drawing.

To all 107mm it may concern:

Be it known that I, AXEL C. Ens'ruoir, a citizen of the United States, residing at Ballston Spa, in the county of Saratoga, tltate of New ,York, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Combustion of \Vaste Fuels; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear-,and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it The present invention has for its object to mix and burn waste fuels, whose combustion individually, is impracticable, so that, by the practice of the invention a low cost fuel is obtained that may be economically burned, as hereinafter described, although its constituent ingredients, by themselves, are recognized as being incapable of successful use as a fuel by any usual or ordinary method of combustion.

At every-locomotive cleaning pit or ash dump.-or where wastefully operated boilers are in operation, alarge tonnage of refuse, containing a; high percentage of combustible material is availble in the r'orm of unburned bituminous coal, or coke, or anthracite coal but partly burned. When this coinbustible material is screened out, by either the wet or dry process, it will not make a successful fuel capable of carrying a sustained fire, because of its inherent clinkering characteristic, resulting in a spotty the indicating that the combustion is not complete. The incompleteness of the combustion is due to the clinkering referred to which tends to close up the fuelbed, depriving it of its open character and correspondingly preventing successful combustion. Similar clinh'ering characteristics are likewise inherent in other bituminous fuel wastes, such as coke oven screenings, the product known as coke breeze. In so far as I am aware, it has been heretofore found impracticable to utilize the waste products referred to for the produc tion of a satisfactory boiler fuel.

At every anthracite mine, after all oi. the prepared sizes have been taken out, and. after all the regular commercial steam 519;".3 have been taken out, there is a large was. torn nage (so-called slush) which is carried oil from the property in liquid shape, but which carries as high as of solids when the slush is passed through a screen. of ggths inch mesh. These solids contain a large percentage of useful combustible material, after Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 25, 1%19.

Application filed November 26, 1918. Serial No. 264,254.

the water has been drained out. The solids obtained are in the shape of coaldust mixed with. clay and other impurities. It is impracticable to use it alone upon a boiler fuel bed'for the reason that the individual particles are so light that with the employment of theusual forced draft, the particles will to a very large extent pass through the boiler fiues before combustion has 7 taken place.

I have discovered that by appropriately combining the ash waste or coke oven waste above referred to with the mine waste described, a composite fuel is obtained of such a character that it can be burned to great advantage as a boiler fuel, when the respective wastes are combined in such proportions as to not only obviate their individual deficiencies for boiler firing, but even to utilize said individual deficiencies, for the purpose of mutually correcting or compensating for each other. Thus, the elinkering characteristic of the ash waste or coke breeze is made available to serve as a binder for the light particles of the anthracite mine waste,.

whereas the higher percentage of carbon present in the anthracite mine waste so raises the total carbon content of the mixture as to permit obtaining the required heat units per volume of the composite mixture.

In practice, I employ from 10 to 20% of -the bituminous ash wastes to 90 to 80% of the anthracite mine wastes.

As noted, the main function of the ash waste is to serve as a binder for the anthracite mine waste, and the relative percentages of the two kinds of wastes making up the composite fuel will at all. times be so adjusted as to supply the more or less varying requirements of the binding materials necessary to hold the dust containing the higher per cent. of carbon in position until the combustion has taken place.

In my U. S. Patent application Ser. No. 248,633, filed Aug. 6, 1918, there is illustrated and described a form of grate-bar of a type that I have found fully adapted to the successful combustion of the composite fuel herein described.

In the aforementioned application. I have 'giarticularly claimed a clinkcring ash waste as one of the constituents of the composite fuel. The action of ash waste as a binder for the anthracite mine waste is not. however, solely confined to the clinkering properties of the ash Waste, but may re suit, in Whole or in part, from the mechanical ability of the ash waste to hold down the anthracite dust until combustion has taken place.

The present case is directed broadly to the provision of aeomposite fuel in which anthracite mine waste is admixed with ash waste of the kind described in such proportions as to maintain the anthracite mine waste in position during the combustion of the composite fuel regardless of whether the l'iinding action of the ash Waste is due to its clinkering property or its mechanical ability to hold down the fine anthracite dust. In addition, the present invention contemplates the provision of a composite fuel comprising anthracite mine Waste admixed with a non-clinkering ash Waste in such proportions that the anthracite mine waste is mechanically held position during its combustion by the ash waste.

The ash waste or waste fuel products hereinbet'ore referred to may contain both cliukering and non-clinkering materials. The fact that there is present in the ash waste constituent of my improved composite fuel a certain amount of fuel or material that will not clinker or fuse is a dis tinct aid to the successful use of the composite fuel, as long as the cinders and larger bituminous particles of the ash waste hold the fine 'thracitc dust mechanically. Such .uon-clii as: material, while serving to mechanlca hold down the anthracite mine waste, p1 MlLS suihcicnt air passages through th fuel bed to insure satisfactory combustion.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1.. A composite fuel for steam boiler fun naces, comprising anthracite mine Waste admixed with ash Waste of the kind described in such proportions that the ash waste will serve to maintain the anthracite mine waste in position during the combustion of the composite fuel; substantially as described.

2. A composite fuel for steam boiler it naces, comprising anthracite mine waste mixed with ash Waste containing not; elinliering i'naterial and inmsuch proportions as will hold down the anthraciteiiiine waste until combustion has taken place; substan tially as described.

A composite fuel for steam boiler furnaces, comprising from 80 to 91% of anthracite mine Waste and from 10 to of ash waste of the kind described containing non-clinkering material; substantially as described.

a. A composite fuel for steam boiler furnaces, comprising anthracite mine Waste admixed with a non-clinkering ash waste in such proportions that the anthracite mine waste is mechanically held in position during its combustion by the ash waste; substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I ElfilX my signature.

AXBiSL C. L. EKSTRUM. 

